We awoke in our hotel and looked out to find a giant fireball in the sky……we had not seen this since our arrival in Germany! Rest assured it did not last long and the clouds once again took over. Our morning was a bit of a lazy one, we had breakfast at 6:30am…and then again at 10. The restaurant staff didn’t seem to mind. Then we headed over to Scott’s place. Michele’s friend Bettina (who lives in Canada) had flown home to Germany for Christmas and we had arranged to meet her near her home town of Mannheim.

We originally were going to catch a train but when we researched tickets we found that 4 return would come close to €200. This is about the same as a hire car so we decided on that instead. Scott then looked up whether we could take a Car2go and we found that we could hire one for 24hours for a flat price of €109…..bargain!

Following a brief stopover in Heidelberg, a very picturesque but touristy town by the Neckar River, we met Betty and her sister, Eva, in Schwetzinger. The car park we parked in even had spaces for UFOs. The town was very quaint and clean with a large Summer castle. Apparently the area is famous for its asparagus, even featuring a statue depicting this. We caught up with Betty and Eva over lunch and beers in a brewery pub. Michele had flammkuchen, a type of German pizza with super thin pastry. Scott had rouladen and Teresa had goulash. Betty and Eva had been fed lunch at home so they joined us in a drink. The conversation flowed and it was so lovely to catch up.

After filling our bellies we crossed the road to check out the castle. We did not pay to enter the gardens but we got to look in from the gate. The vast landscaped gardens were quite impressive and are often used to host festivals in the warmer weather. We walked around the streets a little more and then said our goodbyes.

After a drive back to Frankfurt we face-called with Amadeusz and Irene finally revealed that she was with us. He was bowled over and very excited to see her. After that we walked home and had an early night in preparation for our early start the next morning. Next stop….Amsterdam! Guten nacht!